Dose of Darkness | Tom Riddle |

Chapter Fifteen: Be Brave

Wednesday, November 15, 1944

The runny noses and headaches were spreading through Hogwarts as the cold air began to seep through the corridors to the dormitory rooms.

Even Eleanor found herself falling to the Muggle flu, one of which many other wizards were uneducated about.

What they did not know was that their separation from their world was not a separation from their bodily functions that they actually all shared. But Eleanor's mind was burdened by the cold to really think too much into it.

In the middle of the chilly afternoon where the air stood stagnant, she walked the corridors sensing that winter was arriving quickly and wrapped her gray and blue scarf tighter around her neck. But with no change in the cold atmosphere, she stepped into Professor Dumbledore's transfiguration classroom.

Across the room at his desk sat the Professor himself but standing tall in a gray suit and black rimmed glasses with graying hair was her father.

To no surprise, the other Aurors stood alongside him and her mother sat at the edge of Dumbledore's desk right near her father. It was an odd sight of deja vu, as if the seven of them had been here before but in an earlier time.

As she stepped out of her mind and back into the moment, she greeted her father with open arms and was pulled into an embrace that brought her a burst of joy on top of the weeks of happiness she's endured.

"How are you, my little Eleanor? Merlin you look just like Marjorie did in her last year." said Lemus Parkinson, earning nods of agreement by the others Steve, Eddie, and John. Well, John wasn't as old as the rest but even he saw the similarities between the mother and daughter.

"Just a little chilly." Eleanor shrugged in response with a slightly congested voice.

"She even has the Head Girl pin right." Marjorie chuckled.

"What is the occasion again?" the feverish girl asked.

"I was just speaking with Dumbledore on implementing more security for the school." her father replied, his voice slightly strained. It was now that Eleanor picked up on the tension not just in her father's eyes but the rest of the room. She never took into consideration how much the Ministry had put a weight on her father's soldiers and his hair as well.

"That sounds like a proposition for the Headmaster, Lemus." Dumbledore sighed with exasperation.

Eleanor was surprised to see him so dismissive and averted her eyes to her mother to see she had done the same. Her mother rolled her eyes slightly and Eleanor began to have the feeling that this conversation was hitting a dead end.

"But you're the only one who can solve this problem. Innocent people are dying every day or worse, going missing because of recruitment and there's only so many times we can say Grindelwald's actions are actually just Muggle interference!" said her father, raising his voice ever so lightly enough to surprise her.

She wondered why that no matter how much the Aurors accomplished in the persecution of Grindelwald's satellite groups, he himself was never to be found and always got away.

But Eleanor knew she was the only reason Grindelwald would ever come from the shadows even as revolting as it sounded. It would never work though. The idea of sacrificing herself in a plan to trap Grindelwald would never slip through her father or mother, let alone anyone else. Maybe not even Tom.

"I think we should settle down and--"

"Marjorie, there was a disturbance just outside in the forest two weeks ago and my nephew is now a lycan for the rest of his days." Lemus said.